COMPULSORY ATHLETICS

The new system of compulsory athletics for Freshmen is on the verge of its first year. Rigid examinations are being arranged with view to ascertaining for what form of sport the men are fitted. All available equipment is being prepared for the use of the many members of 1923.

In making this new step, the University is carrying further its task of preparing men for the world. Hitherto, it has merely provided opportunities for physical as well as mental training, and left to the student the choice of taking them or leaving them; and some few champions of the old order decry this latest move, saying that upon the individual and not upon the College falls the stigma of an illdeveloped body. They insist that Harvard should not become a "Glorified boarding school," but should encourage individuality and discourage the "type" by allowing its students a free rein.

This argument is founded upon the delusion that every verdant Freshman who enters the gates of Harvard knows just what is best for him, and that he will carry out to the letter this wisely planned schedule for his college career; which is a delightful prospect, but conceived in the clouds. It is hard to believe, with the new departmental examinations, the stress put upon "intellectual responsibility," and the liberal courses offered, that Harvard is fostering the "type" and discouraging "whatsoever things are elevated."

Compulsory physical training is not meant to bear all its fruits during the Freshman year. Colleges which have tried it have found that a far greater number of their students have turned out for athletics during their last three years with compulsion during the first year, than under a strictly laissez-faire policy. Men who have never partaken in any sports or games in their school days will be drawn into them in college and will be able to enjoy them and profit by them throughout life. The spectacle of clever and talented men needlessly stricken with physical disability in the prime of life, so that all their wit and ability must wither, is only too common; it is such useless waste of talent that the University would try to avoid by showing its students how to take care of themselves.

This latest step in preparing men to play an active and intelligent part in the affairs of the world is a fitting addition to the almost all-embracing training Harvard has hitherto offered.